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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ADDRESS BY 



g/IyNN SUMNER 



LINCOLN DAY 



KiWANis Club of Scranton, Pa. 



February 15, 1922 



COMPLIMENTS OF ROBERT E. PRENDERGAS T 



C ' 



COPYRIGHT. 1922. BY G LYNN SUMNER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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©C1AG73456 



m 22 l^'22 




FROM THE ORIGINAL ETCHING BY EARL HORTER 
OWNED AND COPYRIGHTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS 



Abraham Lincoln 



F you stand upon the top of a great moun- 
tain and look about you, you will see 
rugged rocks, and yawning crevices, and 
precipitous slopes, and on every hand peaks of 
lesser prominence, and you are conscious only 
that the height upon which you stand is part of 
a great upheaval in nature's architecture. 

But as 5'ou descend the mountain and draw 
away from it, the rocks and crevices so promi- 
nent when close at hand now soften into dim 
details, and as you go on across the valley or the 
plain mile after mile and look back, the moun- 
tain on which you stood a little while before 
stands out in majestic splendor and the lesser 
peaks become but a setting that adds by con- 
trast to the inspiring height that now over- 
shadows and out-glories all. 

Just so has the passing of the years added 
glory to the greatness of Lincoln. And so have 
the men among whom he moved in that turbu- 
lent period of the nation's great internal confiict 
become but lesser figures that add by contrast 
to the stature of the greatest American. 

There are so many phases to Lincoln's great- 
ness that in so brief a time one can touch but 
lightly on his character. 

I might speak of him as a great lawyer, for 
his principles of practice established a code of 
ethics for members of the bar. 

I might speak of him as a great orator, for 
his eloquence was the kind that carried convic- 
tion to the souls of men. 

I might speak of him as a great writer, for 
his letters and speeches and state papers are 
evidence of his mastery of the English language. 

I might speak of him as a great statesman, 
for he has been called ' ' the greatest ruler of men 
the world has ever known." 

But I am going to pass over all these charac- 
teristics of his greatness and speak of him as a 
man among men, and of his inlluence upon two 
or three of the outstanding figures of his time. 

I think we sometimes forget that the first 
forty-five years of Lincoln's life were spent in 
comparative obscurity. We are familiar now 
with the sti"uggles of his earlier years, because 



in a realization of his greatness we have gone 
back and learned about him — his humble birth, 
the pitiful poverty of his boyhood, the hai'dships 
of his youth, the simple story of his middle life, 
lint the truth is that with the exception of three 
inconsec(uential terms in the Illinois Legislature, 
beginning in 1836, and a single term in Congress 
in 184G and '47, Lincoln did not appear promi- 
nently in public life imtil 1854-. Almost continu- 
ously for twenty j'ears he practiced law on the 
circuit in Illinois. 

During this same period, there was develop- 
ing, also in Illinois, another man with whom 
Lincoln's life was destined to come into frequent 
and eventually momentous contact. That man 
was Stephen A. Douglas. 

You could scarcely imagine two men more 
strangely in contrast in physical appearance. 
Lincoln, six feet four, long, lanky, awkward, 
homely. Douglas, short, stocky, with a great 
head, a strong face, always immaculately 
dressed. Yet their physical contrast was no 
greater than the contrast in their political suc- 
cess during their early years. Both as young- 
men had sat with the crowd around Joshua 
Speed's store in Springfield and discussed, as 
was the custom, the issues of the day. Both had 
been suitors for the hand of Mary Todd. Both 
had served in the Illinois Legislature in 1836. 

Then their ways parted, Lincoln returning to 
his law practice, and Douglas, a young idol of 
the Democrats of Illinois, launching forth into a 
career of political achievement scarcely, if ever, 
equalled in American historj^ In the legisla- 
ture at 23, he became at 26 Secretary of State of 
Illinois, at 28 a Judge of the Illinois Supreme 
Court, at 30 a member of Congress, and at 34 a 
United States Senator. His star was in the 
swift ascendency, and its course seemed to lead 
straight to a realization of the ambition of his 
life — the Presidency. 

But with all his ability, his splendid (lualities 
and his splendid service to his party, his state, 
and the nation, Douglas had one weakness. To 
attain his ambition he was willing to compro- 
mise on the supreme and vital question of 
slavery. To win the Presidency he dare not 
alienate the South, and so, although a staunch 



supporter in 1848 of the Missouri Compromise, 
wliioh detiuitely i)hu'e(l a limit upou slave terri- 
tory, he broke faith witii it iu 1854 auil himself 
introduced an amendment to the Nebraska bill 
providing that the people of that Territory 
niiglit themselves determine whether it should 
be "slave" or "free." This shift in his i>osi- 
tion on the slave question required an explana- 
tion among his constituents and brought him 
home to Illinois in 1854 to defend his position. 

During these years when Douglas was so 
prominent in public life, Lincoln had followed 
his progress with unllagging interest and he had 
followed, too, every move in the rising tide 
against slavery. And in Lincoln's mental make- 
up there was no room for compromise. No mat- 
ter what his personal ambitions, to the exten- 
sion of slave territory he was unalterably op- 
posed. 

Douglas, seeking large gatherings of peoith", 
learned that the State Fair was to be held at 
Springfield, and on the opening daj' presented 
himself and made a speech to an audience tliat 
crowded the liall of the State House. During 
the early part of his address he said: "I under- 
stand there is to l)e a rejily to this address, and 
that Mr. Lincoln, of this city, is to answer me. 
If this is true, I wish Mr. Lincoln would stand 
forth." Lincoln was not in the audience at the 
time, as Douglas probably well knew. 

But the next day, at the same place, and with 
an ei[ually large audience, Lincoln was present, 
and when the challenge was repeated, Lincoln 
stood forth and at that moment emerged into 
public life, never again to return to obscurity. 
For following the siieeeh of Douglas, he mounted 
the platform and spoke for three hours, deliver- 
ing what many believe to be the greatest speech 
of his life. 

A few days later Douglas went to Blooming- 
ton and Lincoln followed and answered him 
there. And still a few days later when Douglas 
ajipeared at Peoria, Lincoln answered him there. 
It was after the Peoria meeting that Douglas 
went to Lincoln and said to his antagonist: 
"Lincoln, you un(h>rstand this (|uestinn of )iro- 
iiibiting slavery in the Territories better than 
all the opposition in the Senate of the United 
States. I cannot m:ike anything by dcliating it 
with you." 

And with tliis i)lea lie begged Lincoln to de- 
sist. To tliis truce T/mcohi agreed ami l)oth 
abandoned the held and returned to their homes. 
Lincoln's first skinnish with Douglas had been 



won and JJncoln liad made himself the logical 
and unanimous choice of the Kcpiiblicans as 
candidate for Senator foui- years later. 

So now it was 1858 and Douglas was again 
back in Illinois, this time not merely to defend 
his policies, but as the Democratic candidate to 
l>lead for his re-election to the Senate. And 
now i^incoln and Douglas for the (irst i,ime were 
matched in a contest for the same high oflice. 

It was in this campaign that I he great series 
of Lincoln-Douglas debates were arranged and 
carried out. Neither before nor since has there 
ever been anything like them in American his- 
tory' — two intellectual giants, jiroceeding from 
city to city, discussing in public forum the vital, 
burning issue of the time. 

But there was a marked diilerence in the 
manner of the two nu'u. Douglas was si)eaking 
directly to his audiences. Lincoln was speaking 
not only to the people before him Imt also over 
and beyond them to the people of America. 

Some of Lincoln's friends were alarmed at 
his tactics and warned him that if he were not 
more careful Douglas would win. "Perhaps he 
will," Lincoln answered, "but the battle of 1800 
is worth a hundred of this." And he continued 
liis attacks, repeatedly asking Douglas search- 
ing (juestions and forcing him to take in his 
answers comjn'omising positions that he as 
persistently sought to avoid. Aiul in this was 
the foresight of Lincoln revealed. For while 
Douglas won the election, ho won it on a basis 
that cost him the support of the South iu the in- 
finitely greater political crisis two years later. 

The debates with Douglas liad made Lincoln 
the outstanding Kei)ublican of Illinois. lie was 
still comparatively unknown in the East. But 
February, 18G0, was to witness an event of 
mighty signiiicance in Lincoln's political career. 

Lincoln's son, Rolicrt, was in school in Ver- 
mont and when there came from Brooklyn an 
offer of $L'On to sjieak on a lyceum program in a 
lirooklyii cliurch, Lincoln immediately accep- 
ted because the $'J00 would enable Jiim to visit 
his boy at school. After arrangements hail been 
made, however, the Brooklyn peojtle began to 
doubt whether this little known lawyer from the 
West could draw a $J(IO house, so they turned 
liim over to a political club that was conducting 
in Cooper Union a series of lectures on the slave 
<|ueslion. 

I think no liner story lias ever been told of 
this Cooper Union speech than that n'latrd by 



Dr. Russell H. Conwell. He was teacliiug school 
iu New Hampshire, where he had been a neigli- 
bor of William Cullen Bryaut. But iu Feb- 
ruary, 1860, he was iu New York goiug about to 
churches and to political meetings to hear the 
great orators of the time. Bryaut was to be 
chairman of the Cooper Union meeting and he 
invited Oonwell and a young friend to come. 

As they approached the hall that evening, 
they found a crowd of disturbers outside and 
they were stopped and questioned. "Are you 
nigger-men?" asked one of Conwell. "And," 
says Conwell, "we thought he was asking us if 
we were negroes and we answered 'No,' and 
with that he gave us some dried onions, saying, 
'Put these uuder your coats and when you hear 
five whistles, throw 'em at the feller speakin'.' 
So we took the onions and went in." 

Inside there was a crowd, a great, restless 
crowd. And on the platform was a strange con- 
trast of figures. There was William Cullen 
Bryant, the Chairman, fine looking, venerable in 
his years, charming of manner, perfectly at ease. 
And over at one side sat the speaker of the 
evening. His feet were tangled iu the rungs of 
his chair, his eyes were downcast, beside him on 
the floor stood his beaver hat, and in it might be 
seen the manuscript of his speech. 

Finally he arose. One leg of his trousers 
had caught on the back of his shoe. He had run 
his fingers through his hair and left a lock 
standing straight up behind. He had forgotten 
to remove the pencil over his right ear. 

Holding his manuscript in trembling hands, 
he began to read it in a harsh, unpleasant voice. 
The audience, already uneasy, grew in restless- 
ness. There were even hisses from one coi"ner 
of the room. As the minutes dragged on, the 
suspense became intolerable — they were min- 
utes of agony. 

Finally, in turning the pages of his paper 
with shaking hands, a sheet dropped unseen to 
the floor. A moment later he had reached that 
point in his reading, he saw that something was 
missing, and he stood there, embarrassed, a piti- 
ful figure. Then suddenly, in desperation, he 
cast tlie manuscript aside, and throwing out a 
long arm, looked full into the faces of his audi- 
ence and laimched himself into an indictment of 
slavery. The audience grew still, then atten- 
tive, then absorbed. The change was magical. 
It was as if some unseen influence was making 
itself felt. And when the speaker had finished. 



the whole audience was on its feet in wild ap- 
plause. 

The East now knew Lincoln. 

That was the 17th of February, 18G0. Three 
months later Lincoln was nominated at Chicago 
as the Republican candidate for President. The 
Democrats, split into two factions on the slave 
question, put forth two candidates — the South- 
ern wing, Breckinridge, the northern wing, 
Stephen A. Douglas. So now again Lincoln and 
Douglas were contenders, this time for the 
supreme goal. And Lincoln's victory at last 
had come. 

On March 4, 18G1, a vast crowd had assem- 
bled before the East Portico of the Capitol, for a 
President was about to be inaugurated. On the 
platform a group of the nation's greatest men 
waited his coming. Finally Lincoln stepped 
forth. He wore a new suit of clothes, and there 
had been few enough new suits in Lincoln's life. 
But to add to the awkwardness of the situation, 
he carried a new high silk hat and a gold- 
headed cane, and he had not the slightest idea 
what to do with them. After an embarrassed 
pause, he stood the cane in a corner. But he 
could find no place for the hat and he stood there 
holding it. And then, while the eyes of the 
multitude looked on, Douglas stepped forward, 
took the hat from his hand, and held it while 
Lincoln took the oath of office and delivered his 
inaugural address. Thus in such simple form 
came the dramatic climax to their last, long race. 
While one was crowned with the highest honors 
to which their conflicting ambitions had aspired, 
the other humbly held the victor's hat. 

During the early months of Lincoln 's admin- 
istration, he had no critic more bitter than 
Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton, a Democrat, had 
been Attorney General in the Buchanan cabinet 
and there had demonstrated his tremendous 
ability, virtuallj' holding the crumbling Bu- 
chanan administration together as it drew to a 
close. But he looked upon Lincoln's rise to the 
Presidency as a national disaster. Not only 
Lincoln's policy, but his personal appearance 
was a target for Stanton's invectives. He habit- 
ually referred to Lincoln as the "original gor- 
illa" and said that "Du Chaillu was a fool to 
wander all over Africa in search of what he 
could so easily have found in Springfield, Illi- 
nois." 

After the battle of Bull Run, Stanton wi'ote 
to Buchanan: "The imbecilitv of this adminis- 



tnitiou c-ulminated in that eatastroplu'; aud 
irrftrii'val>k' misfortune and national disgrace, 
never to l)e for,i,'otten, are to lie added to tlie 
rnin of all iieaeel'ul pursuits and national hank- 
ru|)tey, as the result of Lincoln's 'ruiininj? the 
machine,' for live months. . . It is not unlikely 
that .-ome change in the War and Navy Depart 
ments may take place, but none beyond those 
Iwo departments until JelT Davis turns out the 
whole concern." 

Yet in January, 186'2, nine months after Lin- 
coln's inauguration, Stanton was invited to 
Iieconie a member of hi.s cabinet. Simon Cam- 
eron, Secretary of War, had been iuie(|ual to the 
t;i-k. A strong man was needed, and Lincoln, 
sei'king only ability and willing to overlook i)er- 
sonalities. saw in Stanton the (|ualities required 
for the War Department's tremendous respon- 
sibility. 

Stanton accepted with supreme confidence in 
himself and no lessening of his contempt for 
Lincoln. He looked upon the call to duty solely 
;.s a personal obligation to save the country. 
Uut upon the tiisk before him he centered all his 
great talents and energies. 

It is doubtful whether any act of Lincoln's 
caused more amazement among Republicans 
tlian his selection of Stanton for the War Office. 
His friends warned him that Stanton would give 
him no end of trouble, that he would run away 
with the whole concern. But Lincoln showed 
no signs of alarm. 

"We may have to treat him," said he, "as 
they are sometimes obliged to treat a Methodist 
minister I know of out West. He gets wrought 
up to so high a pitch of excitement in his 
prayers and exhortations, that they are obliged 
to jiut bricks into his pockets to keep him down. 
We may be obliged to serve Stanton the same 
wav, but I guess we'll let him jump awhile 
lirst." 

Lincoln's constant attitude toward Stanton 
was one of patience and toleration. He seemed 
willing to make any sacrifice of pride, if only 
Stanton's great energies might be ceaselessly 
applied to tiie prosecution of tlie war. 

One day, Owen Lovejoy, heading a delega- 
tion of Western men, came down to Washington 
to urge upon the President that the mingling of 
Western and Kastern lrooi>s would promote tlie 
spirit of national unity, jjinculn Ihoughl well 
of the i)lan and wrote a note to Stanton sugges- 
ting a transfer of certain regim»'nts. When the 



committee presented it to Stanton be said it was 
impracticable and refused to carry it out. 

"If Lincoln gave that order," said Stanton, 
"he is a danm fool." 

Returning to the White House, Lovejoy gave 
Linculn an e.\act report of the conversation. 

"Did Stanton really say I was a damn fool f" 
asked Lincoln. 

"He did," answered Lovejoy. 

"Then," said Lincoln, "1 must be one, for 
Stanton is nearly always right." 

No one knew and understood better than Lin- 
coln the great problems with which his War 
Secretary had to contend, and no one was more 
appreciative of his labors, more ready to sustain 
him in his struggles to maintain the eti'ective- 
ness of the army. 

"Stanton is the rock upon which are beating 
the waves of this confliet," he said to some who 
came complaining of the Secretary's refusal to 
make an army appointment that they desired. 
"He fights back tlie angry waters and prevents 
them from undermining aud overwhelming the 
land. I do not see how he survives — why he is 
not crushed and toni to pieces. Without him I 
should be destroyed." 

Joseph Medill, publisher of the Chicago Trib- 
une during the war, told a story of how at a 
most critical period of the war, a new draft was 
levied and the city of Chicago, which already 
had furnished 20,000 men, w^as asked to send 
6,000 more. There was a great mass meeting to 
protest, and Medill headed a delegation that 
went down to Washington to urge upon the 
President a reduction in Chicago's allotment. 

Lincoln said to them, "Come. I will go 
over with you to Stanton and you can present 
j'our case and we will see what he has to say." 
AVhen they had made their plea, Stanton shook 
his head. "No," he said, "we must have the 
men." 

Then Lincoln, who all this while had been 
sitting silent, tipped back in a chair, stood up, 
and there was a cloud almost of anger on his 
face. 

"Gentlemen," he said, "you ought to be 
ashanu'd of yourselves. No sections of the North 
did .so much to bring on tliis war as New Eng- 
land and the Northwest. You in Chicago were 
calling for it and you got it. And you, Medill, 
with your Chicago Ti-ibune and all its influence, 
vdu wei'c aiiioiig those who wanted if most. 



H< 



Now, when I am trying to carry it through to a 
successful conclusion and call for more troops 
to do it, you bog for mercy. Go back to Chicago 
and raise those men!" 

"We went out of that presence," said Medill, 
"thorouglily asJianied of our mission, and we 
went back to Chicago and raised the 6,000 men. " 

It was the heroic meeting of such crises as 
this that broke down Stanton's antagonism to- 
ward Lincoln. Gradually, he came to know the 
real Lincoln, and as the months went by, con- 
temi)t vanished, respect replaced it, and at last 
a real affection. 

But the burden Stanton carried wore down 
even his rugged health and when, early in 1865, 
Lee's surrender seemed imminent, Stanton 
handed the President his resignation and asked 
to be permitted to retire. But Lincoln, in a 
burst of emotion, threw his arms about the 
other, and said, "Stanton, you have been a good 
friend and a faithful servant. It is not for you 
to say how long the country needs you." 

So Stanton remained at his post, and so it 
happened that on that morning after the fatal 
shot was fired in Ford's Theatre, it was Stanton 
who sat just outside the door of the room in 
which Lincoln lay, courageously meeting the 
emergency, directing all. He issued orders for 
the protection of others high in the administra- 
tion, he maintained constant touch with Grant, 
then hurrying by special train toward Washing- 
ton, and there within sound of the moaning of 
the dying President he dictated what is still the 
best brief account of the awful night's work. 

And when at twenty minutes past seven, 
Abraham Lincoln died, and there was a prayer 
and a solemn pause, it was Stanton's voice that 
broke the stillness with the words: "Now he 
belongs to the ages." 



Lloyd George says, "Lincoln was one of 
those few great men who lost their nationalitv 
in death." 

John Drinkwater, building his great drama 
out of Lincoln's life, considered him one of the 
immortals. \'iewing his greatness from afar, 
he wrote his play of Lincoln, looking upon him 
as one of the greatest characters the world has 
ever known. And when two years later, he 
made his first visit to America and went out to 
Spring-field, he could scarcely realize that one so 
great had lived so close to our own time, that 
here were people still living who had seen him 
and known him and looked into his face. 

And it was in something of this same spirit 
that the other day in Washington, I thought of 
it as Lincoln's Washington. Here was the White 
House where he lived and worked— here were 
the windows out of which he looked across the 
broad, sloping lawns. Here were the very streets 
where he watched the marching troops. Here 
was the Capitol and the East Portico where he 
and Douglas stood that day in March of '61, and 
where he stood again and delivered the never- 
to-be-forgotten second inaugural. And here was 
the little house in Tenth Street where they ear- 
ned him through the narrow doorway and up 
the stairs — to die. 

And down by the Potomac was the magnifi- 
cent Lincoln Memorial, the shrine to which men 
come from the ends of the earth to pay tribute 
to his memory. 

Yet that is not the real Lincoln shrine. For 
that mountainous figure, rising out of a humble 
cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky, stands today in 
majestic splendor, so that the rising and the set- 
ting sun cast West and East across the land the 
shadow of its influence into all our lives and 
set up a Lincoln shrine in the heart of every 
American. 




WITH ABIDING FAITH IN THE PRINCIPLES 
OF KIWANIS AND WITH LOVE AND ESTEEM FOR 
THE AUTHOR, THIS LITTLE BROCHURE IS MADE. 
ROBERT E. rRENDERCAST 










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